More than 60 years after a jury found Miriam Moskowitz guilty of conspiring to deceive a grand jury investigating Soviet atomic espionage, the 98-year-old retired New Jersey teacher is asking a federal judge to throw out her conviction.

One of the last living links to the Rosenberg espionage case, Ms. Moskowitz filed court papers in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday asking to correct what she says is a “miscarriage of justice from the McCarthy era.”

Federal prosecutors accused her of conspiring with her then-boss and lover Abraham Brothman, a New York chemical engineer, to persuade a KGB courier to lie to a grand jury about his spy connections. She spent two years in prison and paid a $10,000 fine.

She was convicted on the strength of testimony from the courier, Harry Gold, whose confession to the FBI proved to be instrumental in the Rosenberg case.

Mr. Gold helped authorities catch atomic spy David Greenglass and ultimately led to the arrests of Greenglass’s sister, Ethel Rosenberg, and her husband, Julius, who were convicted of supplying nuclear secrets to the Soviets and executed in 1953.

And it was Mr. Gold’s testimony that also ensnared Ms. Moskowitz, who was briefly a member of the Communist Party and had worked as Mr. Brothman’s secretary at his office in Queens.

In a 16-page petition, lawyers for Baker Botts LLP representing her pro bono contend that Mr. Gold lied to jurors, pointing to evidence that surfaced only recently. They point to grand jury transcripts unsealed in 2008 that show him contradicting what he had told the FBI in 1950 about Ms. Moskowitz’s knowledge of a conspiracy. Her lawyers also say she didn’t cooperate with the FBI at the time because she feared exposing her affair with Mr. Brothman, a married man.

The petition says Ms. Moskowitz, who published a book about her case in 2012 saying she and the Rosenbergs were victims of “anti-Soviet hysteria”, still lives under the shadow of her felony conviction. Her lawyers say she never married as a result of her conviction and had difficulty holding a job due to her notoriety.

The $10,000 fine Ms. Moskowitz paid in 1950, equivalent to nearly $100,000 today, together with lost job opportunities have caused Ms. Moskowitz economic hardship her entire life. While the Court cannot undo more than sixty years of economic adversity, vacating the conviction and fine will help alleviate some of that distress particularly since, having never married, Ms. Moskowitz has always had to support herself.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.

“I”m 98, and I don’t want to depart this world with this thing hanging over me,” Ms. Moskowitz told Law Blog on Tuesday.

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